In Time
by joxdanny
Summary: Shortly after Regina's murder was solved she became fed up of chasing after Danny- he was too obsessed with Lacey- and started dating Tyler. They just happen to bump into each other two years later, and feelings start coming back. JANNY


**Takes place two years after the Regina case.**

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Jo closed her eyes as she smelled the rich autumn air of Green Grove. She was walking back from school. It was now her senior year, and things were looking undoubtfully hopeful. Plenty of schools were begging to have her as part of their enrolled students because of her flashy GPA.

"Hey, you alright?" Tyler asked her. He was standing right next to her, but she had almost forgotten his existence for a moment.

"Yeah. Just tired." She said dismissively as she laced his fingers with his. Honestly she was thinking about how she could remember the same smell of the leaves the night Regina Crane was murdered. That had happened a full two years ago, and even drunk, she could still remember the night clearly. Mainly smells though. The cold breeze of the wind, the heavy and relaxing scent of the falling leaves. She could even remember the light musk of Danny's cologne, along with the salty smell of his breath. He must have been eating party snacks before they left. It had almost been a year since Jo had spoken of Danny. A year and a half since they had last spoken. But that memory along with so many others were so vibrant in her mind.

_Probably because you've watched him kill someone before_. She tried to internally convince herself.

They had stopped their contact with one another after the Regina Crane case was settled. Of course, like in all of the movies, he got with the pretty girl and it was a happily-ever-fucking-after. Whatever. She didn't care. Jo had Tyler.

They walked through the middle of town before Tyler tugged on her arm. "Hey, I need to stop in Johnny Cakes to grab some pie. My sister's sick and asked for one."

Jo was a little out of it from being so deep in thought. "Yeah, okay." She nodded as she followed after him. She stood with Tyler at the counter until she heard someone call her name. Her gaze was immediately brought up to see Danny, and one of the soccer guys sitting in their old booth.

An immediate disgust washed over her. He took over _her_ booth. Out of all the booths to sit in… He chose the one that came with the most sentimental value and took it over. Asshole.

But then she also had another string of panic wash over her. Danny. He was actually talking to her? Why? What did he want?

Jo took a break and glanced over to Tyler. "I should go to talk to him. I'll see you later." Jo have him a small completely forced smile.

"Oh, okay." He shrugged as he took the pie from the woman across the counter. "I'll call you later." He nodded as he leaned forward to kiss her forehead.

Danny gritted his teeth as he watched the way that Tyler had kissed Jo's forehead. He shouldn't have though. It was to be expected. They had been dating for a while now. He watched as Jo timidly walked across the diner towards him. She looked amazing.

"You might want to sop up some of that drool." Ferrel murmured before Jo came into earshot.

Danny cut him a dangerous glance before looking back at Jo as she stood at the edge of the table. "Hey." She said quietly. "It's been awhile."

Danny nodded. "Yeah it really has." He agreed. "How've you been?"

"Good." No she needed to sound better than good. "Great." She corrected quickly. "I'm doing really great." The girl paused for a moment and tried to decide if she should ask the next question. "How's Lacey?" She blurted.

"Oh, uh. I don't really know…" He shrugged. "Haven't talked to her in the last few months. We split up." He clarified.

Internally, Jo belted out into an evil laugh. She knew that would happen. _Karma is a complete bitch._

_Externally, _Jo put on a sympathetic frown. "Sorry to hear that." She replied a little too apathetically.

Danny nodded with a small shrug to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal. "It happens."

There was a short awkward pause and Ferrel quickly stood up. "I should get going."

Jo lightly smiled to him as a good bye as she watched Danny stand up and give him one of those weird guy handshake/hug things that she never understood.

After Danny's companion started walking away she started to feel awkward. She hadn't been alone with him in so long. Having Ferrel there was a nice buffer, but now it was just them.

"Sit, let's get caught up." He gestured to the booth. Danny's mind tried so painfully hard to get her to stay without seeming desperate. He missed her. He couldn't directly admit that though. She had someone else now.

"I should probably get home. My parents are waiting on me." Jo lied. She mentally scolded herself as she spoke. She wanted to spend more time with him, but she knew that she needed to avoid him as much as possible. Getting over him was a process. The most he was around the harder it would become.

"Let me walk you home?" He asked curiously. He didn't want the afternoon to be over.

"Uh, sure." Jo nodded. Her idea of getting away from him wasn't exact working, but she couldn't help the fact that she continued to want to be around him. His presence was so fun and nice.

The walk was quiet at first, but conversation about small various things started to come into play.

"Have you been to the fort lately?" He asked peeking over to her.

Jo shook her head. "Not since we were there last time." She answered. It had brought back too many memories of him for her to just go there.

"I have." He admitted. "I kind of did something awesome too." He gave her that award winning crooked smile and she was lost. He had that kind of effect on her.

"W-what did you do?" She sputtered.

Danny must have mistaken it for fear because he instantly held up his hands defensively. "It's not that big of a change I swear. Just a cool addition." He smiled back down to her again. "Come on." He reached down and lightly tugged on her arm. "I'll show you."

He back tracked about a half a block to the familiar and abandoned trail that led to their fort. Well, dragged was a more appropriate word.

When they had reached the nostalgic location Jo looked around. Not a lot looked dofferent. An old coffee table was now sitting next to the fire pit, but other than that, everything looked the same. She assumed that him and Lacey had been here a lot when they were dating. She unintentionally made a small disgusted face when she wondered if they had sex in there. Jo was sure that they had done it, what was stopping them from moving their location to their fort?

"What's wrong?" He looked to her confusedly.

"Oh, nothing. I just smelled a skunk is all." She lied as she crossed her arms. It was starting to get a little chilly outside. "So what did you want to show me?" Jo asked, trying to get him to the point. She didn't need to be alone with him. She knew feeling for him would anchor themselves back into her heart if she continued to let him be around her. She couldn't have that happen. She had Tyler, and Danny had really kind of screwed her over.

"Straight to the point." He smirked and looked down to her. Jo started to realize for close they really were. "A very Masterson thing to do."

And with that damn crooked smirk and the playful use of her last name, an anchor was set.

"Come on Desai." She smiled to him, coming out a lot more flirtation than she would like to admit.

"Alright, alright." Danny grinned before he walked over to the corner and moved a couple things around and just like that the entire fort was then lit up with a dangerous amount of Christmas lights.

"Woah…" Jo trailed off as she looked at them. Why was this so… enchanting? They were just Christmas lights, but something about the light in the old childhood stomping grounds had made everything more enjoyable. Almost childlike again. "This is amazing."

"Yeah, I thought about it a couple days ago, and thought you would like it." He smiled to her as he leaned against one of the stools. He internally winced as he realized that he practically admitted to thinking about her. Danny didn't let any change of emotion range over his features though.

Jo lightly smiled and walked around the fort a couple times, her arms tucked tightly to her as she moved. "I can start the fire pit if you want?" He asked, interrupting her various nostalgic thoughts.

"Oh…" She took a deep breath and looked away from him for a moment. "I don't know… I should probably get going." She swallowed hard and kept her gaze away from him. She couldn't let him do this to her… She was stronger than she was two years ago. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that Danny would hurt her again. Emotionally, that is.

"Please stay." He mumbled softly as he grabbed her wrist. "I haven't talked to you in so long… Stay with me for a bit?"

Jo looked into his pleading eyes by mistake. Damn. "Danny… This isn't right. I can't…" She spoke with a single breath and pushed some of the messy curls out of her face.

"Can't what? We're just talking." Danny stood up from his seat and looked to her.

Jo took a deep breath and tried to look away but his eyes were so captivating. "it's not just talking though Danny? Alright?" She finally snapped back.

Danny stood and looked at her. He knew that he didn't have to question what she meant. She could continue if he kept looking at her.

"You knew that I loved you. And you just kept ignoring it and leading me on. You couldn't just own up to it, and now you're doing it again. You need someone there for you, and you know that I'm the easiest target."

Danny looked away. He never meant to her hurt her like this. "Jo, I made a mistake when I chose Lacey." It was extremely blunt, but neither of them seemed to care about he fragility of the conversation. Things just needed to be said.

"Yeah. Well too late for that." Jo was being really harsh, but she couldn't help herself. She was hurt, and scared.

"You really think so?" His voice murmured as he took hold of her forearms and lightly pulled her closer to him. "I don't."

Jo felt breathless as she moved even closer to him. She could already feel the wall she had built to keep him at bay being torn down, by none other than the charming Danny Desai. Her eyes darted back and forth from his lips to his eyes as she tried to decide whether she should run or kiss him.

Before the decision was hers to make Danny slowly started to lean it, and like everything she had been thinking had turned into mush. She quickly fed her desire and stood up on the tips of her toes to kiss him back.

The kiss lasted much longer than she would have ever imagine, and as the pulled away they looked at each other intently. Their eyes were saying more than their lips had spoken the entire afternoon. They both wanted this. So badly.

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**Feedback is appreciated3**


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